158 A DISCOURSE

Book.II. Pliny speaks of an old Lotus Tree in a Grove near Rome, whichl -'''”V~vJthey called Capittate, upon which the Vejtals present (as our Nuns)were used to hang their Hair cut off at their Prosesion. P I'm. Lib. xvi.Cap. xliii. But that is nothing to this.

I may not in the mean Time omit what has been said of the trueTaxus of the Antients, for being a mortis >erous Plant. Dr . Belluccio,Prejident of the Medical Garden at Pisa in Tuscany (where they havethis Curiosity) affirms, that when his Gardeners clip it (as sometimesthey do) they are not able to work above half an Hour at a Time, itmakes their Heads soake : But the Leaves of this Tree are more like theFir, and is very bushy, furnished with Leaves from the very Root, andseeming rather an Hedge than a Tree, though it grow very tall.

6. This English Tew-tree is easily produced of the Seeds , washedand cleansed from their Mucilage , then buried and dried in Sand a littlemoist, any Time in December, and so kept in some Vessel in the Houseall Winter, and in some cool shady Place Abroad all the Summer, sowthem the Spring after: Some bury them in the Ground like Haws ; itwill commonly be the second Winter e’er they peep, and then they risewith their Caps on their Heads. Being three Years old, you maytransplant them, and form them into Standards , Knobs, Walks ,Hedges , Qfc. in all which Works they succeed marvellous well, and areworth our Patience for their perennial Verdure and Durableness. I doagain name them for Hedges , preferable for Beauty, and a stiff Defenceto any Plant I have ever seen, and may upon that Account (withoutVanity) be said to have been the first which brought it into Fashion, aswell for Defence, as fora Succedaneum to Cypress , whether in Hedgesos Pyramids, Conic-spires, Bowls, or what other Shapes, adorning theParks or larger Avenues with their lofty Tops thirty Foot high, andbraving all the Efforts of the most rigid Winter, which Cypress cannotweather. I have said how long-lasting they are, and easily to be shapedand clipped, nay, cut down, revive: But those which are much su-perannuated, and perhaps of many hundred Years standing, perish ifso used.

7 . He that in Winter should behold some of our highest Hills inSurrey, clad with whole Woods of these two last Sort of Trees , fordivers Miles in Circuit (as in those delicious Groves of them, belong-ing to the Honourable , my noble Friend, the late Sir Adam Brown ofBechworth- Cas le, from Box-hill) might, without the least Violence tohis Imagination , easily fancy himself transported into some new or en-chanted Country ; for, if any Spot of England ,

a --- ’tis here

Eternal Spring, and Summer all the Tear.

Of which I have already spoken in the former Session.

Holly. 8 . B u t above all the natural Greens which inrich our home-bornStore, there is none certainly to be compared to the Agrisolium (otAcu'isolium rather) our Holly so spontaneously growing here in thisPart of Surrey , that the large Vale near my own Dwelling, was an-ti ently called Holmes-Dale ; famous for the Flight of the Danes.The Inhabitants of great Antiquity (in their Manners, Habits , Speech)have a Proverb, Homes-Dale never won ; ne, never shall. It hadonce a Fort , called Homes-Dale-Casile : 1 know not whether it might

* Hie yer perpetuum, atque alieuis meniibus xstas.

not